Tala Park - Putiram - Indian Coffee House

9 of us met in front of Statesman House at 7am to go to Tala Park and sample a typical North Calcutta breakfast of Kochuri, cholar daal and chanar jalebi!! Luckily one of them was returning hasher Shantanu who was able to guide us on this excursion to North Calcutta to find the mythic Tala Park that Carl had read about, somewhere near the Tala pumping station beyond Shyam Bazaar crossing and the Sunday morning bird market.

We not only found the Park which is actually the North Calcutta Sporting Centre and the Swimming Club and Angler's Club to boot, but Zoria seeing trees in the distance made us walk over to another secret mango orchard where there were only buffalos and crows. Though we didn't really see a fountain, we saw the bridge that we weren't allowed to cross as it had yet to be inaugurated! We saw lots of swimmers even a few girls and a few fisherboys. We saw a catch and subsequent whacking of the fish. Patricia took lots of pictures of the street children and Manu admired the cannon ball tree or Naga Shiva whachamacallit flowers.

Doc then lead the 3 car convoy down Bidhan Sarani's tram tracks to Putiram's off college square. There 6 of us had a delicious breakfast of Daal Kochuri, alu, shingara, jalebi and shorbhaja sandesh. Manus mouth had been watering all morning at the prospect of this typical Bengali breakfast. Zoria however had trepidations and she took Siddiqui and Carl off to a private breakfast. The rest of us dug into the Kochuris and sweetstuff. Shantanu who must have been missing all this kept asking for 2nds, 3rds, 4ths... but no matter all that he consumed the bill only came to Rs. 50. We then bought lots of elephant and duck shaped sandesh as a carry home dessert to be much admired. Since Putiram neither serves tea nor coffee we went over to the Coffee House for some hot cafe au lait and "infusion" (black coffee).

This was of course Patricia's and Barbara's first visit to the Coffee House which they much admired. The next day there was a fire and 4 book stores in the area were gutted so we're glad we visited the coffee house last Sunday. Delphi, who has an office in the area, now knows what to order at the sweetshops there. Everyone at the tables were delighted with the breakfast though we neither had napkins nor soap. It was declared one of the best hashes from the Connect with the City perspective -similar in ethos to our visit to the Chinese Church near Nan King near BBD Bag. Mohit, you would have loved it! The drive back past the Star Theatre was fun and Delphi learnt that Barbara and Munnu who behave like young lovers were married in 1964. Well Barbara, after all those years in Calcutta, you've finally visited the Calcutta Coffee House.